Monday, September 27, 2010

Chennai Super Kings became the first Indian team to win the Airtel Champions League T20 Tournament. Chennai defeated South African domestic T20 winner, Warriors. Warriors batted first in the most crucial match of the tournament and Chennai bowlers, especially the spinners, played a huge part in restricting the Warriors. Warriors managed to score just 128/7 in their alloted 20 overs. Chennai chased the target with precision.

Warriors won the toss and elected to bat first. They have cracker of a start, but could not convert them into a big one. Their captain and opening batsmen Jacobs had been the best batsmen of Warriors in the tournament and today was no exception. Jacobs scored 34 off just 21 balls, but once his wicket fell, Warriors lost their way & submitted to the bowling of Muttaih Muralitharan & R Ashwin, who took 5 wickets of the total 7. Doug Bollinger & Albie Morkel also took 1 wicket apiece. In the lower order, Thyssen scored a quickfire 25 off 18 balls & took the team to a fighting total of 128.

Chennai was always in the control of the chase and their openers Murali Vijay & Michael Hussey shared a 103 run partnership for the 1st wicket and this ensured their win. Warriors' bowlers tried very hard, but they could do nothing about these two. Both the openers made cracking half centuries. Vijay scored 58 off 53 balls, with 6 fours and 2 sixes, whereas Hussey remained unbeaten on 51 off 46 balls. It was a calm & controlled innings by Hussey, as always! In the end, Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni hit a six & a four to win the tournament & complete the 'double' of IPL victory and Champions League.

R Ashwin was declared Man of the Series for taking 13 wickets. He was outstanding throughout the tournament except for that super over defeat against Victoria Bushrangers.Murali Vijay gets the Golden bat for scoring the most number of runs & R Ashwin gets the Golden Wicket.

Monday, August 30, 2010

In spite of all match fixing controversies surrounding Pakistan Cricket team, the team management has decided to continue the tour. In fact, the team has arrived in Taunton. Meanwhile, the 'Center of Attraction', Mazhar Majeed, has been released on bail by Scotland Yard Police. Also, the three alleged players, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Amir & captain Salman Butt, whose mobile phones were confiscated, have also travelled to Somerset, with the team.

The whole Pakistan has mixed sorts of emotions; people are cursing their 'heroes'. Some are crying over the incident, while some are still not ready to believe the 'spot fixing' allegations. The media, former players and fans, all are very disappointed with these sorts of allegations. Some former players are putting all the blame on PCB for not reacting on One dayer and T20 Captain Shahid Afridi's warning of keeping Pakistani players away from Majeed Brothers.

Andrew Strauss, on the other hand, showed mixed feelings. He, on the one side, was very happy to win the test from the position of losing; on the other hand; he also looks dejected on the possibility of deleting the Test Match's records from the history.

Pakistan team manager Yawar Saeed, on the other hand, said that the tour will continue as per the itinerary, with a warm up game against Somerset at Taunton, scheduled for Thursday.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

After getting the match postponed for one day because of excessive rains, the ODI between Sri Lanka and New Zealand have been abandoned and the two teams have to get satisfied by sharing equal points. Sri Lanka was 203 for 3 in 43.4 overs, when the match got stopped due to rain.

Meanwhile, Srilankan Captain Kumar Sangakkara has been founded a level 2 accused of breaching ICC Code of Conduct when he get collided by New Zealand off-spinner Nathan McCullum, The incident occurred in the 27th over of the Sri Lankan innings. Sangakkara guided a McCullum delivery to fine leg and set off for a run. He was turning for the second when he bumped into the bowler, who had his back to Sangakkara. McCullum complained to the umpire and Sangakkara also had words with him.

This has been rather an unfortunate series for Sri Lanka.First some players got injured and some of them were down with Dengue fever; then the Suraj Randiv - Virender Sehwag 'no-ball' controversy & defeat against India (and that too without achieving a single point) and now the captain Kumar Sangakkara has ran into trouble. We think that Sri Lanka has to overcome their fortune also, apart from India and New Zealand.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

In the second test at The Oval, Pakistan's returning batsman Mohd. Yousuf made a patient half century to help Pakistan take lead in the ongoing Test match. Apart from Mohd. Yousuf, new batsman Azhar Ali made a patient half century and is still batting (when the blog is posted) on 66 and is the leading scorer in Pakistan's first innings as they take a lead of 45 runs in the first innings.

Pakistan, on the other hand, restricted England to a mere 233, thanks mainly to a first 5 wicket haul for the debutant Wahab Riaz, who took 5-63 in his first ever test innings. Pacer Mohd. Asif took 3 wickets and played an important role in restricting England to 233.

Pakistan were 276 when the last news came in. For England, G.P. Swann took 3 wickets.